"You do realize that the industry is under no obligation whatsoever to package the music in the format you want, nor to make ripping mp3s easy."
Perhaps not. However, the RIAA has the equivalent of a monopoly. They don't have competition that'll distinguish themselves by not doing that as consumer demand dictates.
I personally don't care about playing fair until they do.
" The point I was trying to make is that the use of DirectX ties you inexorably to Windows. By contrast a project developed with SDL can be ported relatively painlessly."
Who cares? You can sell half a milllion copies of a game on Windows PC's, and maybe 10,000 copies on Linux PC's. Even if it's easy to port, is it worth it? From the numbers above, the answer is no. Quake 3 sold millions of copies on Windows, and something like 40,000 on Linux. Ouch.
"And you are an idiot."
And what's your basis for this now? Am I an idiot for seeking education? Or am I an idiot because my panties don't get in a bunch over the term proprietary? I got news for ya buddy, if I want to make games for a living, I'm going to want to sell as many as possible. If the Linux gaming market is laughably small, then there's no value in having cross-platform development tools. None. Zero. Zilch. Zip. (Though I do whole-heartedly agree with you that having the source code to an SDK is a strong reason not to use DirectX.) It doesn't make sense to go cross platform unless the increase in games sold is able to eat up the costs of porting and make a profit to boot. I don't give a flying fuck about it being proprietary if it can get the job done, nor would any other game developer out there.
"Wow, lumping people into behavioral groups based on what piece of code is sitting on their hard drives. You're going by the equivalent of classifying peoples worth by the color of their socks."
I didn't lump anybody together. I said he uses Linux. Read the clarification bit I wrote right after I said that.
I guess you didn't read the part where I said I wanted to be educated on the topic. It's hard to call me an idiot when I'm openly saying "enlighten me".
"Second of all, DirectX might as well be called Direct ProprietaryStupidOnlyWorksOnWindowsX and actually that's what I'm going to call it from now on because the whole idea of it makes me sick to the stomach."
BFD. That's Microsoft's perogative. If it bugs you so much, help the OSS team develop a rival to it.
"And thirdly, you are still an idiot."
I'd be bothered by that if I felt inferior to you.
"And you know if you use GLUT with OpenGL I'm pretty darn sure you can get all the mousey, keyboardy, inputy thing-a-ling all happening, which is nice I suppose."
Yeah, it's kind of important to be able to have control in a game.
"And sound in games is for sissys."
Ah, so you really are a linux user! (clarification: I'm talking about the acceptance of lack of sound, not the bad spelling.)
"And what sort of crap is Direct ProprietaryStupidOnlyWorksOnWindowsX anyway. Is it Free? Does it run on any machine I own? Pointless stupid and crap."
Yes, it's free. Yes it'll run on any machine you own. Afterall, if you're a gamer, you have Windows installed. Pointless and stupid? DirectX is behind just about every successful PC game out there.
"And you are an idiot."
Are you at a loss of words or are you just into recycling? You'd think somebody who is presumably not an idiot would be able to make a better case for that claim.
"OMG IT DOESNT RUN ON LINUX1@#!@#$ HOW DARE YOU RECOMMEND IT, NOOB"/I.
I know you're joking, but Linux isn't the platform I'd develop an indie game on. It'd be kind of like advertising viagra on Slashdot. You have to think about how big your audience would be here...
"So can anyone explain to me how Nintendo has been making video games for longer than we have had computers?"
You see, Nintendo often makes more than one game at a time, so by applying a Rosen'esque algorithm, you can arrive at that number by multiplying the number of years the company has actually been around by...
From what I understand, it's a pain in the ass sometimes, but it's got some strengths that are hard to ignore:
1.) Well supported. Works across 98, 2k, and XP. That's MILLIONs of machines there.
2.) DirectX not only handles graphics, but sound and input as well. It's just not somethting you get from OpenGL.
3.) It's always growing. Supposedly they always have new features and stuff going into DirectX. Can't say I know how that compares with other API's, but it seems like Nvidia and ATI are always doing something with MS there.
For the record, I really am asking "what's wrong with DirectX", as opposed to using that as a clever way of saying they should be using it. I'm not the most informed person on this topic and I welcome some education on the matter.
"Yeah? Well what if I had an accident and suffered brain damage so unusual that the only way I could effectively communicate was through the use of unrealistic extremes? Huh? What then, Buddy?"
I'd use stronger compression. MPEG2 for broadcast is a hog compared to DivX and other MPEG4 related codecs.
If I were out to archive TV, then I'd look at two approaches.
1.) Use a PC instead of a TiVO with a program like Snapstream to capture and encode the video using DivX in real time. You can get 1.5 hours per CD, and I think 9-10 hours per DVD. If you drop the resolution to 320 by 240, you'll do even better. There's a little suffering in quality, but trust me when I say you won't notice once the show starts. Now you only need a fraction of a terabyte.
2.) Similar to step one, only use the TiVO (or a Replay with a network out) to capture the shows and transcode it into MPEG 4. The quality will be better than the previous approach, but you'll encode the same video twice. Personally, I don't think it's that big of deal.
There are considerations here, though.
- Playback of DivX files to TV is *almost* there but not quite. (makes you ache for a cracked XBOX, doesn't it?) On the flip side, though, these shows will easily travel to your laptop and PCs. I've done this before, and it was DAMN COOL to have several episodes of Quantum Leap to watch when I went on a 5 day business trip.
- Video quality probably won't be as good as captured with the TiVO. It has superior capture nad playback equipment. I can't help you there, but I can tell you that you won't notice after a while. I have a bunch of QL eps recorded at a strained bitrate, and they all came out wonderful. At first glance it's blocky, but once you're immersed, it just isn't noticed anymore.
- I don't think this would be ideal for home movie capture. For that, I recommend a digital video camera with firewire.
- Step 2 involves automation and extra processing. You might feel that after a while.
Personally, I'd rather go this route at the sacrifice of some quality than to try to get a terabyte of storage going. With 250 gig drives floating around, it's not all that challenging or expensive to do, but that is a backup nightmare.
"If you don't have time to watch it within the first week, are you ever really going to watch it?"
Obviously you've never done the "oo I got a day off" M*A*S*H marathon.
I hate problems like this. The guy wants a problem solved, not a reason not to solve it. If he wants to build a library, let him do it. Frankly, I wish this technology had been around a few years ago. Shows come and go. It's damn near impossible to find the majority of Mystery Science Theater episodes that aired on Comedy Central. That's why the Digital Archive Project is up and running. They don't want that show to die just because Comedy Central wouldn't renew it.
"Note to everybody else: this is not a debating society. There are no rebuttals. There's no winning."
Then why did you have such a problem with his reply?
"Don't be such a fuckin tool. Grow the fuck up."
Am I calling anybody a tool? Am I telling people to grow the 'fuck' up? Am I the one who turned into a 12 year old kid when my response was rightfully questioned? Am I the one who needs to grow up here?
"Also, quit referring to yourself by dumbass names like "nanogator." That's just fucking childish."
Is that the best you got? You can't support your side of a debate, so you attack my name of all things? You're calling me childish?
Too bad he has a point. You called him wrong, you said he doesn't use the same logic as everybody else, but you didn't provide any reasoning as to why. As he said, that's not a rebuttal. I think the proper term is shithead.
Note to everybody else: If you have to resort to that type of rebuttal in order to get your point across, it means you're not winning.
Slashdot Mirror
"Don't buy it."
Yeah, that way they can claim P2P is eating into their sales. Simple, yet unhelpful solution.
"You do realize that the industry is under no obligation whatsoever to package the music in the format you want, nor to make ripping mp3s easy."
Perhaps not. However, the RIAA has the equivalent of a monopoly. They don't have competition that'll distinguish themselves by not doing that as consumer demand dictates.
I personally don't care about playing fair until they do.
"Not well supported. Doesn't work on MacOS, PS2, or GameCube."
What API does work with PS2 and GameCube?
" The point I was trying to make is that the use of DirectX ties you inexorably to Windows. By contrast a project developed with SDL can be ported relatively painlessly."
Who cares? You can sell half a milllion copies of a game on Windows PC's, and maybe 10,000 copies on Linux PC's. Even if it's easy to port, is it worth it? From the numbers above, the answer is no. Quake 3 sold millions of copies on Windows, and something like 40,000 on Linux. Ouch.
"And you are an idiot."
And what's your basis for this now? Am I an idiot for seeking education? Or am I an idiot because my panties don't get in a bunch over the term proprietary? I got news for ya buddy, if I want to make games for a living, I'm going to want to sell as many as possible. If the Linux gaming market is laughably small, then there's no value in having cross-platform development tools. None. Zero. Zilch. Zip. (Though I do whole-heartedly agree with you that having the source code to an SDK is a strong reason not to use DirectX.) It doesn't make sense to go cross platform unless the increase in games sold is able to eat up the costs of porting and make a profit to boot. I don't give a flying fuck about it being proprietary if it can get the job done, nor would any other game developer out there.
"Excuse me, I'm not the AC above, but I'm a gamer. I own a Mac, a Playstation 2 and a GameCube. Which of these will run DirectX ?"
We were talking about PC gaming. And I know for a fact you don't have many games for your Mac.
"Your honor, I did it because my husband hacked the sofa to say 'whoah, one at a time!' whenever I sat down on it."
"Judgement in favor of the defendent: Justifiable homicide."
ehm, what?
"Wow, lumping people into behavioral groups based on what piece of code is sitting on their hard drives. You're going by the equivalent of classifying peoples worth by the color of their socks."
I didn't lump anybody together. I said he uses Linux. Read the clarification bit I wrote right after I said that.
Nice try.
Man you're a fucking idiot.
"OK, first up I've gotta say, 'You are an idiot."
I guess you didn't read the part where I said I wanted to be educated on the topic. It's hard to call me an idiot when I'm openly saying "enlighten me".
"Second of all, DirectX might as well be called Direct ProprietaryStupidOnlyWorksOnWindowsX and actually that's what I'm going to call it from now on because the whole idea of it makes me sick to the stomach."
BFD. That's Microsoft's perogative. If it bugs you so much, help the OSS team develop a rival to it.
"And thirdly, you are still an idiot."
I'd be bothered by that if I felt inferior to you.
"And you know if you use GLUT with OpenGL I'm pretty darn sure you can get all the mousey, keyboardy, inputy thing-a-ling all happening, which is nice I suppose."
Yeah, it's kind of important to be able to have control in a game.
"And sound in games is for sissys."
Ah, so you really are a linux user! (clarification: I'm talking about the acceptance of lack of sound, not the bad spelling.)
"And what sort of crap is Direct ProprietaryStupidOnlyWorksOnWindowsX anyway. Is it Free? Does it run on any machine I own? Pointless stupid and crap."
Yes, it's free. Yes it'll run on any machine you own. Afterall, if you're a gamer, you have Windows installed. Pointless and stupid? DirectX is behind just about every successful PC game out there.
"And you are an idiot."
Are you at a loss of words or are you just into recycling? You'd think somebody who is presumably not an idiot would be able to make a better case for that claim.
"OMG IT DOESNT RUN ON LINUX1@#!@#$ HOW DARE YOU RECOMMEND IT, NOOB"/I.
I know you're joking, but Linux isn't the platform I'd develop an indie game on. It'd be kind of like advertising viagra on Slashdot. You have to think about how big your audience would be here...
"NEWS FLASH: Microsoft loses money on EVERY PRODUCT NOT NAMED "Windows" OR "Office"."
Or "Optical Mouse", or "Keyboard", or "Network Card", or "MSN", or "MSNBC", or....
"So can anyone explain to me how Nintendo has been making video games for longer than we have had computers?"
...
You see, Nintendo often makes more than one game at a time, so by applying a Rosen'esque algorithm, you can arrive at that number by multiplying the number of years the company has actually been around by
What's wrong with DirectX?
From what I understand, it's a pain in the ass sometimes, but it's got some strengths that are hard to ignore:
1.) Well supported. Works across 98, 2k, and XP. That's MILLIONs of machines there.
2.) DirectX not only handles graphics, but sound and input as well. It's just not somethting you get from OpenGL.
3.) It's always growing. Supposedly they always have new features and stuff going into DirectX. Can't say I know how that compares with other API's, but it seems like Nvidia and ATI are always doing something with MS there.
For the record, I really am asking "what's wrong with DirectX", as opposed to using that as a clever way of saying they should be using it. I'm not the most informed person on this topic and I welcome some education on the matter.
"What's Wrong with This Picture?"
"saving money, microsoft, windows, easier admin."
There aren't 100's of people denying it simply because they hate Microsoft?
... doesn't mean it wasn't successful. How much cash did Nintendo rake in?
Now I'd be worried if Nintendo was shaking up its executives...
"Yeah? Well what if I had an accident and suffered brain damage so unusual that the only way I could effectively communicate was through the use of unrealistic extremes? Huh? What then, Buddy?"
Hehehehe!
I'd use stronger compression. MPEG2 for broadcast is a hog compared to DivX and other MPEG4 related codecs.
If I were out to archive TV, then I'd look at two approaches.
1.) Use a PC instead of a TiVO with a program like Snapstream to capture and encode the video using DivX in real time. You can get 1.5 hours per CD, and I think 9-10 hours per DVD. If you drop the resolution to 320 by 240, you'll do even better. There's a little suffering in quality, but trust me when I say you won't notice once the show starts. Now you only need a fraction of a terabyte.
2.) Similar to step one, only use the TiVO (or a Replay with a network out) to capture the shows and transcode it into MPEG 4. The quality will be better than the previous approach, but you'll encode the same video twice. Personally, I don't think it's that big of deal.
There are considerations here, though.
- Playback of DivX files to TV is *almost* there but not quite. (makes you ache for a cracked XBOX, doesn't it?) On the flip side, though, these shows will easily travel to your laptop and PCs. I've done this before, and it was DAMN COOL to have several episodes of Quantum Leap to watch when I went on a 5 day business trip.
- Video quality probably won't be as good as captured with the TiVO. It has superior capture nad playback equipment. I can't help you there, but I can tell you that you won't notice after a while. I have a bunch of QL eps recorded at a strained bitrate, and they all came out wonderful. At first glance it's blocky, but once you're immersed, it just isn't noticed anymore.
- I don't think this would be ideal for home movie capture. For that, I recommend a digital video camera with firewire.
- Step 2 involves automation and extra processing. You might feel that after a while.
Personally, I'd rather go this route at the sacrifice of some quality than to try to get a terabyte of storage going. With 250 gig drives floating around, it's not all that challenging or expensive to do, but that is a backup nightmare.
"If you don't have time to watch it within the first week, are you ever really going to watch it?"
Obviously you've never done the "oo I got a day off" M*A*S*H marathon.
I hate problems like this. The guy wants a problem solved, not a reason not to solve it. If he wants to build a library, let him do it. Frankly, I wish this technology had been around a few years ago. Shows come and go. It's damn near impossible to find the majority of Mystery Science Theater episodes that aired on Comedy Central. That's why the Digital Archive Project is up and running. They don't want that show to die just because Comedy Central wouldn't renew it.
"Yes, little friend. You really inflicted an serious act of violence on me! Woo!"
I must have, you sure got sore about it.
"You're a real badass, "nanopenis."
Is that all you got? Heh. No wonder you gave up.
"On your mark... Get set.... age!"
Judging from your silence, it's clear I kicked your ass. Guess you'll think twice before flaming people.
"Note to everybody else: this is not a debating society. There are no rebuttals. There's no winning."
Then why did you have such a problem with his reply?
"Don't be such a fuckin tool. Grow the fuck up."
Am I calling anybody a tool? Am I telling people to grow the 'fuck' up? Am I the one who turned into a 12 year old kid when my response was rightfully questioned? Am I the one who needs to grow up here?
"Also, quit referring to yourself by dumbass names like "nanogator." That's just fucking childish."
Is that the best you got? You can't support your side of a debate, so you attack my name of all things? You're calling me childish?
Heh thanks for the laugh.
"Someone set us up the bomb!"
"Waa! He didn't argue with me! Waa! Mommy!"
Too bad he has a point. You called him wrong, you said he doesn't use the same logic as everybody else, but you didn't provide any reasoning as to why. As he said, that's not a rebuttal. I think the proper term is shithead.
Note to everybody else: If you have to resort to that type of rebuttal in order to get your point across, it means you're not winning.